Two Times the Fun (5 page)
And then, when the twins happened
to look out the window, a big delivery truck came slowly down the street, paused, and turned into the driveway—Jimmy and Janet’s driveway. Two men got out of the truck. They opened the back, lifted something out, and set it on the grass. It was a bed.
They lifted out another bed and set it on the grass, too. Grown-up beds!
“Beds!” shouted Jimmy and Janet. “Mother, are these beds for us?”
“Yes,” answered Mother. “You are growing up. It is time for you to have big beds.”
The men carried one bed into the house and set it on Janet’s side of the bedroom. They carried the other bed into the house and set it on Jimmy’s
side of the room. “There you are, kids,” one of them said. “Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Jimmy and Janet bounced up and down on their new grown-up beds while Mother stood in the hall and watched.
“What—will—you—do—with—our—little—beds?” Janet asked Mother as she bounced.
“Maybe we could have a garage sale,” Mother answered. “Or send them to Goodwill.”
Then Jimmy stopped bouncing. “What is Janet going to do with her paper bags?” he asked. “They will fall off her bed.”
Janet stopped bouncing. She took her paper bags from her old little bed and piled them on her new grown-up bed. When she climbed back on her bed, paper bags slid off allover the floor.
“Ha-ha,” said Jimmy.
“Jimmy can have my old paper bags,” said Janet. “I am not a mouse. I am a big girl, and I sleep in a big bed.”
“I don’t want Janet’s paper bags,” said Jimmy. “I am too big to play with little junk.”
“So am I,” said Janet.
The twins began to bounce again. “We are big! We are big!” they sang
while Mother tried to gather up all of Janet’s paper bags.
Then Jimmy and Janet heard Mr. Lemon poking letters and catalogs through the slot in the front door. They jumped off their beds and ran to meet him. “Mr. Lemon! Mr. Lemon!” they shouted when they opened the door. “We have big beds! We have big beds!”
“Wow! Big beds!” said Mr. Lemon. Jimmy and Janet could tell he was
really surprised.
“Say, you are growing up!” said Mr. Lemon. “I never would have guessed.”
Growing-up—that was what Jimmy and Janet wanted more than anything in the whole world. “We’re growing up!” they shouted. “We’re growing up!” Mr. Lemon said so and he had learned a thing or two in his lifetime.
BEVERLY CLEARY
is one of America’s most popular authors. Born in McMinnville, Oregon, she lived on a farm in Yamhill until she was six and then moved to Portland. After college, she became a children’s librarian in Yakima, Washington. In 1940, she married Clarence T. Cleary, and they became the parents of twins, now grown.
Mrs. Cleary’s books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented in recognition of her lasting contributions to children’s literature. She has also received the 2003 National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her
Dear Mr. Henshaw
was awarded the 1984 John Newbery Medal, and her
Ramona and Her Father
and
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
have been named Newbery Honor Books. In addition, her books have won more than thirty-five statewide awards based on the votes of her young readers. Her characters, including Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, and Beezus and Ramona Quimby, as well as Ribsy, Socks, and Ralph S. Mouse, have delighted children for generations.
Visit Beverly Cleary on the World Wide Web at www.beverlycleary.com
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TWO TIMES THE FUN
. Copyright © 2005 by Beverly Cleary. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub Edition March 2008 ISBN 9780061757297
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